Journalism course in DU sees surprise rush, gets 59,000 applications

Journalism has turned out to be an unexpected new member of the club of popular courses, which continues to be dominated by traditional favourites such as English, economics and commerce. Mallica Joshi reports. See Delhi University's first cut-off list

Along with high cut-off figures, the sought-after courses at Delhi University have also thrown up some surprises this year.

Journalism has turned out to be an unexpected new member of the club of popular courses, which continues to be dominated by traditional favourites such as English, economics and commerce. As many as 59,583 students have applied for the course, a phenomenal rise from last year’s 2,200.

Experts attribute the sudden surge to two reasons. First, the entrance test that formed the basis for admission to the course was not conducted this year because of a lack of time. Instead, students used the common form to apply for the course. Applications for the course ordinarily closed in May, well before the common application form for other courses came out.

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"Only those who were actually interested would apply. The rest would not even come to know that the forms were out as they were not serious applicants. This year, many students listed journalism as their second or third choice as the form was common," said a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College. LSR is one of the six DU colleges offering the course with just 250 seats between them.